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Rookie is an online magazine and book series for teenagers. Each month, a different editorial theme drives the writing, photography, and artwork that we publish. Learn more about us here, and find out how to submit your work here!

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My first time was in Baltimore, surrounded by drunk cops and charismatic drug dealers. Some of my friends had put in their time before me and were already speaking in code. When I finally joined in, I went headlong, barely coming up for air, until I too was babbling at strangers about Stringer Bell, Wallace, and poor, sweet Bubbles.

I’m talking, of course, about the HBO series The Wire. Four years after its debut in 2002, my then-boyfriend (now husband) and I decided we had to know what all the fuss was about. We watched three seasons in the span of just a few weeks, powering through hour after hour in a couple of sittings, utterly rapt until we could no longer keep our eyes open. We were living in a drafty house across the street from a lake in Madison, Wisconsin, but we could have been anywhere—we spent entire days in front of the television, promising each other that each episode would be our last before bed. We moved from day to night without noticing—that’s how deeply absorbed we were in Omar Little’s seasons-long vendetta against the crew who murdered his boyfriend, Stringer’s business-savvy approach to selling drugs, and police office Jimmy McNulty’s drinking problems. What is darkness if not an optimal setting for a stakeout?

I have never been one to mete my pleasures out in a way that will make something wonderful last as long as possible. If there is a gorgeous piece of chocolate cake in front of me, it will be inside my belly in five seconds flat. If I’m in a new city, I will hit the ground running and explore the whole thing the first day, leaving me panting, exhausted, and jet-lagged. This is not the way to go through life, I tell myself. But self-discipline has no place with TV consumption. Devouring a series whole—or maybe it would be more accurate to say being consumed BY it—is one of life’s great pleasures, up there with talking to my cats, tulle, and the aforementioned cake. Of course, with the introduction of DVRs, Netflix, and DVD box sets, I may never slow down, which puts me at risk for couch sores, eyestrain, and a near lunacy when the whole thing is over. I need more, more, more.

After we watched all of The Wire, which we had to finish in real time like the once-a-week viewing plebes, we turned to HBO’s Six Feet Under (2001-2005). If The Wire was like an epic novel chronicling the practically subterranean trials of an American city in crisis, Six Feet Under was the story of an unhappy family that is unhappy in its own way, with festering wounds caused by decades of misunderstanding and neglect and love at the hands of parents and siblings. I loved the complicated, crazy Brenda Chenowith and, most of all, the ethereal, passionate Claire Fisher. I loved watching all the characters make tough decisions, fight, marry, live, and die. I loved it so much that when my wedding approached and I still had not finished the series, I brought the finale with us on our honeymoon in Mexico. That’s right—we brought a television show set in a funeral parlor on our honeymoon. That may strike you as unromantic, but only if you haven’t seen it (minor spoiler ahead). There are few perfect finales in the world, but Six Feet Under’s is one of them. I mean, we were so close to the end—how could we wait?! We watched it in our airy hotel suite and cried, cried, cried. We wept not only because it was over, but because we’d seen the future, in all of its mess and devastating glory, and we were satisfied. I still weep every time I hear this Sia song, and I can’t tell you why, because it might spoil the series, but should you watch, you will understand.

Now, it will surprise no one that I don’t know a linebacker from a quarterback, but nevertheless, I gave Friday Night Lights (2006-2011) a chance. We rented the first disc from Netflix, just to see if it lived up to the hype, and watched the pilot episode on an airplane from Brooklyn to Portland, Oregon, where I was taking my husband for his 30th birthday. By the end of that hour, we were hooked. We needed to see how the fictional town of Dillon, Texas would soldier on after Jason Street, their star quarterback, was paralyzed. We needed to know how Coach Taylor and his magnificent wife, Tami, would adjust, and which player would woo their teenage daughter, Julie. So when we landed and picked up our rental car, did we head straight for the Rose Gardens or Voodoo Doughnut? No. We drove to a Fred Meyer to buy the entire first season on DVD. We did manage to unglue ourselves from the television set in the hotel room to see the city, but watching FNL remains a memorable part of that trip. While I still don’t know anything about football except that it looks cool in montage shots, I do know more about mentoring and responsibility, about marriage and sacrifice, about friendship and how good certain boys can look in nylon stretchpants. We watched all the seasons to date as quickly as possible, and then once again suffered through the indignity of having to watch only one per week once the fourth season began. There is nothing as frustrating as watching a single episode of a show that you want to mainline.

Finally, last year, after we watched the first episode together when I was sick, my husband excused himself from sitting through the rest of the British TV show Downton Abbey with me. I watched alone for the rest of the day, taking breaks only to make cups of tea and use the bathroom. I cried, I laughed, I swooned at the dresses. It’s a drama set in a British country house in the early 20th century, with plots unfolding both upstairs, where the aristocratic Crawley family dawdle the days away, and downstairs, where the servants hustle to meet the Crawleys’ every need. This show thrilled me to no end. It reminded me of my first real period love, the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice miniseries from 1995. I’d watched those six hours by myself when I was in college, depressed and lonely and full of beer and tater tots, and it consoled me. I don’t know why, but it felt like I had company, like I was a bystander in a drama that my witnessing made me a part of. Who needs a boyfriend when you have Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy?

I’m surely not the first to say that Jane Austen made me pine for the perfect partner, but I will happily report that I think I have one: right before the second season of Downton Abbey begun, my husband gave in and watched the entire first season with me, which means that I’ve now seen it twice. I loved sitting next to him and waiting for his reaction to the Dowager Countess’s many zingers. And though I am loathe to admit it, my need to SEE MORE NOW turned me into a criminal. I couldn’t wait for each episode to air, so my husband found it online and illegally downloaded it, and we watched it, along with the Christmas special, in two giant gulps. If I’m being truly honest, I’m not sorry. The only thing that makes me a little bit sad about Downton Abbey is when I see some of the actors in their normal, 21st century clothing, and I have to deal with the fact that they do Pilates and have cell phones.

So that’s the story of how I’ve spent 229 hours of my life, with nary a mention of the words “guilty” or “pleasure.” Watching fictional characters grow and change over a period of years is something that we don’t get to do—except by reading, which I’ve tried to avoid referencing here. Yes, OK, reading tends to accomplish the same thing: huge, imaginative, complex worlds that we can lose ourselves in. But this piece is about binging on TV shows.

This is television’s so-called golden age, and the best series explore secondary plot lines, minor characters, and long-term character transformations to an extent that you truly feel like these made-up people are flesh and blood. Personally, I think that’s what makes them so enthralling in their entirety than the soapier shows that I’d loved in my youth. Beverly Hills, 90210 aired for 10 years, and though I think I’ve seen all 292 or so hours of it, I wouldn’t want to watch them all at once—there were too many missteps (Kelly in the fire, Kelly getting shot, Kelly as a cult member) to see it consecutively. By comparison, Friday Night Lights only had one clumsy subplot in an otherwise good season (Landry, I’m looking at you), which is easier to overlook in the scheme of things.

And speaking of, some wonderful shows (My So-Called Life, Veronica Mars) were canceled prematurely, but our one small consolation is that they can be watched over and over again in totality, fitting together as a singular narrative rather than an interrupted saga. I think next up might be Parenthood, which I hadn’t been interested in enough to tune in when it first aired, but I’ve seen the last season, which is pretty great. That’s the thing—sometimes a single episode just doesn’t seem worth the time. I was out that night, I was tired, I had better things to do. But then, one lazy weekend, that won’t be the case. This series is from one of the creators of Friday Night Lights, it stars Peter Krause from Six Feet Under and Lauren Graham from Gilmore Girls, and it just may be the ideal way to spend a Sunday afternoon. I’ll report back—just give me 53 hours. ♦

Why is Rookie so timely? my latest obsession has been power-watching tv shows on youtube. i started with lizzie mcguire, the moved on to the That 70’s Show (i’m still stuck in season six, though). Then My So called Life, followed by Freaks and Geeks. I watched season 2 of the big bang theory in a week (albiet on dvd but whatever)and I just finished the first four seasons of skins.

there is something special about watching a show in such a concentrated manner….

Dude. I finished it a few weeks ago and LAB (LIfe After Battlestar) has been really hard!!! Best series I’ve ever seen, though. I still cry when I think about Adama and Roslin in the last episode… Okay. Enough geeking out, except to say that I’m getting Starbuck’s wing tattoo in a couple weeks. Okay, now I’m done.

I can’t wait for summer to start power watching entire series that I’ve been putting off because I don’t have time. Also, because I can work on school work over summer without all the pressure of teachers hovering over me… I’m procrastinating… Well, research paper on gladiatrices here I come… in a little bit. (I’m beginning to think I might have a problem) Nah!

Oh man. OOOHHHH man. Thank you for this post. It makes me feel so much better that I’m now obsessed with Doctor Who and Grey’s Anatomy after powering through the first four seasons of each (thank you, roommate with Netflix) and am now planning my summer TV crazes.

So what’s next, guys? What should I watch? I’m thinking Gilmore Girls since I never actually watched it when it was on, and maybe Desperate Housewives. Maybe Scrubs?

Also, Veronica Mars USED to be on Netflix Instant and they TOOK IT OFF when my BFF and I were halfway through the last season!!! Grr. But for those of you who haven’t seen it, the first season’s the best.

SCRUBS! Oh my gosh, I forgot how much I loved that show. I sat in front of my computer and watched the entire thing, start to finish, on YouTube over the course of a couple weeks. And it was AMAZING. <3

Torchwood is good and on Netflix Instant and set in the Whoniverse. If you are into smart people who help the police, Sherlock(1 series ), Bones(6 seasons), Lie to me(3 seasons), and Numb3rs(6 seasons). I

I’m on the last season of The Tudors and it’s getting to the point where I space out the episodes because I don’t want it to be over. It’s not often that I find a series I’m so enthralled with! Totally forgot about Freaks and Geeks, I’m halfway through the prematurely-ended show :'(

I’ve lost day and days of my life to Peep Show and Whose Line is it Anyway, the latter of which I watched during an important exam period at the end of High School. Watching WLiiA became more important than studying, although there’s no pressure to find out about characters or plot lines (because there are none), it’s brain dead but hilarious.

Veronica Mars. The best. I still watch that non-stop and could never ever get sick of that show. It’s amazing.
By the way, this is just the greatest post. It’s great to get so sucked into a TV series, with no guilty feelings!

I love seeing television affirmed as a valid form of art and entertainment. I totally used to be dismissive of it, but now this article is basically a summary of my life (especially the speculation that Pride and Prejudice is what started it all…).

My shows:
The Wire (best, always and forever)
Homicide (The Wire’s network sort-of-precursor; underrated and fantastic)
Freaks and Geeks (heinous cancellation)
Sherlock
Mad Men
New Who (I have been putting off watching the end of season four because I still have too much homework to be plunged that far into misery just yet)

Hoping to start:
Breaking Bad
Game of Thrones
Six Feet Under
Downton Abbey
Firefly
Battlestar Galactica

Oh, my god. I’ve done this with SO many shows.
The really ironic thing is, I just “discovered” Portlandia this weekend, watched a bunch of episodes, (the Battlestar Galactica was one of them) and was like, “MORE! MORE!” after each one.
I was acting just like Fred and Carrie. Haha

“And speaking of, some wonderful shows (My So-Called Life, Veronica Mars) were canceled prematurely, but our one small consolation is that they can be watched over and over again in totality, fitting together as a singular narrative rather than an interrupted saga.”

THIS binge-watching is exactly why I love NETFLIX. I’m currently watching Dr. Who – I’ll watch the last episode of Season 3 tonight.

I’ve also started Downton Abbey and Mad Men. It took me awhile to warm up to these – maybe 3 episodes, before I was hooked. Maggie Smith and her zingers are amazing. Amazing. And I love Don Draper and all of his slimy co-workers and family/neighbors. I still haven’t found a character on that show that I’m sympathetic towards, but I cannot stop watching.

I’ll stop gushing now. Thanks for the article; I’ve enjoyed it and will check into the shows you’ve recommended.

The Wire! I’ve watched entire seasons in one sitting that show is impossible to turn off. Omar Little is the best television character. I don’t think anything can top him testifying in court. “Just like you man…I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It’s all in the game though, right?”

Posts like this are the reason I love this site. TV truly is in a golden age. Getting into a show with your significant other is so much fun. It’s a cheap mini-date and a great way to bond and start conversations. It’s also good to know your significant other finds the same things funny as you. My bf and I have watched the following, all of which I recommend:
-The Office
-Dexter
-The Walking Dead
-Arrested Development
-Naked Brothers Band
-Firefly (I especially recommend this one! One season plus a movie. Sci-fi, comedy, romance, drama, adventure. By Joss Whedon.)

We just started Community and still plan to watch, just off the top of my head:
-Dr. Who (which he has seen and loves but I don’t have time to start yet)
-Mad Men
-Portlandia
-Breaking Bad
-Parks & Rec
-New Girl
-It’s Always Sunny…
-How I Met Your Mother

No one watching the x files? I love dana scully. I wish had i had seen the series with 14 (but I was too scared ;)) because she is a great role model. Some months ago I was powering through almost the whole series.

I once met John Lithgow at a party right after finishing season 4 of Dexter where he plays the Trinity Killer. I told him that for the past week I had done nothing else other than sit in my room and watch the show. His response? “That’s how you should watch it! It’s so much better all in one go.” So ladies and gentleman, if this method is good enough for John Lithgow, it’s good enough for us.

I once spent a whole month ( i mean from morning to night) watching season 1 – 5 of Desperate Housewives. I was 14. I usually watched and still do watch tv series that either have a character i identify with or a hot guy (AHS had both..), desperate housewives had neither but something about it was conforting and lovely.

When my boyfriend and I aren’t riding our bikes or at work, we’re powering through various series. It all started when we met (5+ years ago) when I was in the process of powering through Queer as Folk (US)and he quickly became equally as obsessed as me. Currently we’re watching Monk and Oz. Oz for the second time, actually, because that shit is riveting. I’m watching Carl Sagan’s Cosmos by myself thanks to a Rookie article about it, and I’m in love. Carl Sagan is the dreamiest astrophysicist ever.
We’ve watched/ are waiting on more seasons:
Twin Peaks
Dexter
Weeds
Six Feet Under
Breaking Bad
Parks and Rec
The X files
Sons of Anarchy
Jersey Shore
The Walking Dead
American Pickers
Community

and omg so many more, I can’t possibly remember it all. We don’t have cable, though, so were really digesting mostly pure content (I try to convince myself). We love space/science/nature shows and documentaries, too.

DUDE. I was a total Lost geek for years. I had been watching it on and off and then two years ago I decided to fully commit and I spent a month staying up till 2 a.m. watching them from the beginning. When the finale came out I watched it live and was sobbing. I’m still going through withdrawal (just kidding…. maybe….) But seriously, that was my all-time favorite TV show. It’s amazing.

My family does this all the time. We’ve watched Freaks and Geeks, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, Doctor Who, Project Runway (though not the more recent ones), Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, Roswell, and How I Met Your Mother. It’s fun, though extremely time consuming.

The first time I binged on a TV show was with B:TVS. It was summer 2010, I was 14 (going on 15), and we had just gotten Netflix. I’d heard of Willow and Tara’s legendary relationship and wanted to see what all the hubbub was about. I sat down at the computer at around noon and did not leave my rolly chair at all (other than bathroom breaks and my mom peeling me away so I could eat dinner) until sometime after midnight when I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer. I went to bed having watched 11 out of 12 episodes of the first season. I finished all 7 seasons of Buffy and the first 2 seasons of Angel that summer before we had to cancel our Netflix subscription. Since then, I have become a complete Whedonphile (Buffy, Angel, Firefly, Dr. Horrible, Dollhouse, The Avengers, etc.) and an active lurker in the femslash community. He had me at “What’s your childhood trauma?”

My version of the Pride and Prejudice miniseries is Downton Abbey as I watched it one weekend alone in my dorm room when I wasn’t feeling well. I also just yesterday finished all 60+ hours of Mad Men in a month (and now I’m caught up so sunday I get to watch the newest episode on tv, which will be so strange!)

other shows that lend well to marathon watching:
Pushing Daisies
Freaks and Geeks
Arrested Development
Firefly
Community
Daria

When I started reading this I totaly thought of that portlandia skit! I love portland and voodoo doughnuts and I know what you mean having watched a bunch and then catching up and having to wait for one a week! It’s so frusterating!

YES! thanks for all those hours spent my dear Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Rome, Battlestar Gallactica (until season 3), Saturday Night Live, Dexter (though I couldn’t watch any further than the season 4 finale), Big Bang Theory, Adventure Time, New Girl, Glee (I accept it), the first season of Weeds…there’s probably more but those are the ones I remember.

“It reminded me of my first real period love, the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice miniseries from 1995. I’d watched those six hours by myself when I was in college, depressed and lonely and full of beer and tater tots, and it consoled me. I don’t know why, but it felt like I had company, like I was a bystander in a drama that my witnessing made me a part of. Who needs a boyfriend when you have Colin Firth as Mr. Darcy?”

power-watching TV series is a pretty big part of my life, I’d say. First it was Dexter, then Mad Men, then Freaks and Geeks, then Game of Thrones, then Breaking Bad (!!). I have so many other shows I want to see, like Boardwalk Empire, The Sopranos, The Wire, Six Feet Under, etc. Moderation might be good, but there’s something pretty magical about being completely sucked into a particular world and following a set of characters and their stories obsessively for a few weeks.
And if the show’s great enough, it’s a journey I’ll take again. I’m planning on marathoning the first four seasons of Breakign Bad again with my family this summer before season 5 starts on July 15th. :)

TV is the best. In the last few years I have watched all that I can get my hands on of Buffy, Veronica Mars, Party Down, Arrested Development, Sherlock, The Walking Dead, Dead Like Me, Boardwalk Empire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men…I have an occasional affair with Being Human (U.K. Version, hello) and True Blood. I have a hate/love relationship with Toddlers and Tiaras/Dance Moms/Jersey Shore when I am really tired/sick/doing some obligatory, non-fun thing. Right now I am in the second season of Six Feet Under and hopelessly addicted to GIRLS. My dad and I have watched a lot of these series together. It has become kind of an evening-time ritual. I think–contrary to the oft-uttered refrain–that TV has been good for us. And it’s fun to see how the other (albeit imaginary) half lives. Escapism at it’s best :)

You know what, I’m French and I just wanted to thank american and british people to create series because without you I would have nothing to watch.
Seriously, French series sucks that’s why I’m only watching How I Met your Mother and Mad Men and Grey’s Anatomy. Moreover, I’m living in Africa so it’s really hard to watch series online because my internet is soooo slow but thanks to that I still a big reader.

I mainlined Community. And I could not love it more. Actually, speaking of books, I mainlined the first two a Song of Ice And Fire books just so that I could watch the two seasons of Game of Thrones, which I’m about to be caught up with, just in time for the season finale tomorrow. You can mainline anything really.

The second season of Downton Abbey has aired? I thought I read it didn’t start till like September… grr, must look into more closely. I can so relate to going through series though. Though I tend to savor them more, for when I need, need, need to watch them. It took me about a year to watch the first season of Skins, which sounds sad. I think it was about four months with My So-Called Life.

it’s scary, but power-watching shows is my life! my boyfriend & i have been together since like, 2007. Here are shows that we’ve powered through (that I can remember, anyway), in no particular order:
* THE SOPRANOS
*THE WIRE
*ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT
*WEEDS *ROME *DEADWOOD
*FLIGHT OF THE CONCHORDS
*DEXTER *MAD MEN
*MR. SHOW *BOSTON LEGAL
*BORED TO DEATH *SMASH
*BREAKING BAD *BIG LOVE
*GILMORE GIRLS *RESCUE ME
*SIX FEET UNDER
*THE IT CROWD *COMMUNITY
*DOWNTON ABBEY
*seasons 1-3 PROJECT RUNWAY
*NURSE JACKIE *ARCHER
*STRANGERS WITH CANDY
and I’m just now starting *season 1 of THE KILLING.
I can’t think of anything else (!)
And yes, I can totally relate to being pissed off after power-watching a show, getting all caught up with it and then having to watch the subsequent episodes once-per-week. Like everybody else. Boo!
Here’s the thing: I’m underemployed (obviously), and cannot afford cable TV. I was doing the Netflix thing for our marathon viewings, but I put my Netflix subscription on hold 6 months ago. I found various sites to watch the cable shows online, with mixed results of success. Then I found a website for viewing like, Every show. This site is different- there’s no bad links, fake links and I don’t even have to download the shows. It’s best not to wait very long before you try & watch TV shows on the site because the more popular cable shows can get removed from certain links. I use Firefox & it’s Add-On “Ad-Block Plus”. It’s great i have no annoying/confusing ads popping up when I’m on the web. This works well for this. Happy viewing!

Whenever I start watching a show that my mom has been watching for a while, I will power through it so quickly that soon, she has to catch up with me. Such was the way with Glee, especially. And I don’t know if this counts because I’ve already seen all the episodes, but I just got the DVD of Once Upon A Time and in two days I’ve rewatched up to episode 14.